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Changing Moods 

By 
GEORGE ELLISTON 




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Book. >LfcfeC 51 
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COBXRIGliT DEPOSIT. 



CHANGING MOODS 



Changing Moods 



By 

GEORGE ELLISTON 




CINCINNATI 

Sign of the Pen and Pad 

1922 



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Copyright, 1922, by 
GEORGE ELLISTON 



SEP 25 '22 

C1A681897 



TO MY FRIEND 

PENELOPE STRATTON SHANNON 



CHANGING MOODS II 

THE UNFORGOTTEN 12 

BEAUTY THE WHIMSICAL 13 

SUMMER 14 

LOST YOUTH 15 

MAGIC l6 

MONOTONE 17 

QUIET STREETS 18 

INQUIRY 19 

WHEN LOVE COMES LATE TO WOMEN 20 

SANCTUARY 21 

BEAUTY 22 

APRIL IMMUNE 23 

SOUL ALIVE 24 

GOLDEN WEDDING BRIDE 25 

BLUE HOLLYHOCKS 26 

BRIMMING CUP 27 

APRIL 28 

IN TRAFFIC 29 

LONGING 30 

INTROSPECTION 3 1 

CANDLELIGHT SONGS 32 

7 



AFTER DEATH 33 

POETRY 34 

END OF THE MAY 35 

LAMENT 3 6 

OLD SHIPS 37 

RESURRECTION 3^ 

PARTING OF THE WAYS 39 

SINCERITY 4° 

CANDOR 4 1 

THE REJECTED 4 2 

DEAR GHOSTS 43 

THE SPIRIT 44 

FIGHTING COURAGE 45 

GREENWICH VILLAGE 4^ 

THE USUAL STARS 47 

HILL BELOVED 4 8 

OH THAT I MAY HAVE LOVE 49 

CHOICE 50 

CHILDLESS WOMEN 51 

INDIAN SUMMER 5 2 



CHANGING MOODS 



CHANGING MOODS 

TAThirlwind they come and go 

These changing moods of ours. 
Mysterious ebb and flow — 

Today, weighed down with grief 
Is swept with pain and woe 
Passing faith or belief- 
Tomorrow, love will live 
Again, the soul take hope 
In what its heaven map give. 

Like phantom figures on 

A screen, these changing moods 

Here for a breath— and gone. 



ii 



THE UNFORGOTTEN 



npODAY, you whispered to me 

From the lilac hedge you loved- 
What's death but mockery? 
All day you've been beside me. 

Down by the meadow bars 
This morning first I knew, 

And now beneath the stars — 
Nothing can keep you from me. 

Death has but made you dearer 
Who live within my soul ; 

Death has but brought you nearer 
In life and death to me. 



12 



BEAUTY, THE WHIMSICAL 

"DEAUTY is a curious elf; 

To some she shines in glory, 
In silver rain and in blue delf — 
From others hides her story. 

Once I saw her in a smile 
So wan and woe-begone: 

And yet there for a little while 
Was beauty like the dawn. 

Sometimes she is stalking pain, 

Sometimes rioting, 
Sometimes in a country lane 

Where the violets sing. 

Beauty is a curious elf, 
Whether friend or foe; 

Loveliest when just herself 
Any heart may know. 



13 



SUMMER 



CO beautiful is summer 
I hang it on a bough, 
And bending down I worship, 
My soul enthralled in Now. 

So beautiful is summer 
I fling it to the ground, 

And revel in the music 

And the mystery of its sound. 

So beautiful is summer 
I clasp it to my breast; 

It is so weirdly lovely, 
I cannot stop nor rest. 

So beautiful is summer 
I snare it to my heart, 

And pray to be made worthy 
Of half its subtle art. 



14 



LOST YOUTH 

YOUTH* went by me in the night 

And I knew her not; 
Blind to all her rosy light, 
Pity me, my lot. 

Now the need of laughter lacking 
Haunts my waking thought, 

Like a wild thing blindly tracking 
In a forest caught. 

I would know what never can be; 

Lend me bitterness, 
All my own does nor suffice me 

What I would express. 



15 



MAGIC 



HP HERE in the garden's center 
Is a merry singing fountain, 
Its lilting song I fain 
Would know. 
Winds that blow, 
Birds that fly 
Gaily by 

Seem to catch the rhythm. 
Why not I? 

Might I know the words? 

Fountain won't you tell? 

Or would that break the spell 

Of song 

Sung so long 

To rose and bee 

And listening tree; 

Ah, perhaps best not 

Tell it me. 



16 



MONOTONE 



ALARM clock at six-thirty — 

A lazy consciousness 
Of life's returning force, 

And then a vague, vague guess 
As to the vivid sound. 

Conviction and a sudden 
Sense of righteous duty: 

Apparel quickly donned, 
A smell akin to beauty — 

Ham an' the day's begun! 

Newspaper to be read, 
A street car to be caught, 

And hurry, rush and hurry, 

All these things duly wrought — 

Downtown's at last achieved. 

And now the busy day 

Of office work — oasis 
At midday; then, five-thirty — 

Hurry — one must not miss 
The home-bound trolley car. 

So does the city live 

In breathless speed, its tide 
Of tasks bound in between 

Morning and evening ride — 
Tomorrows all alike. 



17 



QUIET STREETS 

COME live in quiet streets 

And naught of all the noise and sound 
Touches their consciousness. 

They live serene, aloof, profound 
Unto themselves, but out 

Of traffic's dim and mad dismay, 
Their only contact with 

This world as with a foreign fray 
Seen in a dream, unreal, untrue 

Peace traps the souls of those 

Who live always in quiet streets, 
Content with piecemeal life, 

Content with their inane retreats. 
Dead e'er their death, the real 

Rejected and the days gone stale — 
Better one vivid day 

Of effort, though that one day fail, 
Than quiet streets a thousand years! 



18 



INQUIRY 



■yyHY should I know longing 

For the plains who never saw them? 
Why should there come thronging 
In my mind the dreams of gentian — 
Who have only heard the mention 
Of that lovely flower or seen 
It perhaps upon a screen? 

Why should I know longing 
For the loves that poets sing — 
With the city noise ding-donging 
Ever through a tired brain 
Hurrying homeward in the rain? 
Did I somehow, somewhere know 
These things in some long ago? 



19 



WHEN LOVE COMES LATE TO WOMEN 

VOU speak of love and I thrill to the sound 

Because I love you too — profound — 
This thing that comes a shimmering light 
Sweet as cool rain in summer night — 
And yet I am afraid, afraid. 

There is a treasure I would not give up 
For all life's riches in my cup, 
And when I look into your eyes 
And see the promised paradise, 

It seems a snare through centuries laid. 

What is your love and what it is you seek, 
Not what would make my own life bleak? 
You will not sink my soul to where 
It has no breath but your soul's air? 
Men have — and I'm afraid, afraid. 



20 



SANCTUARY 

T ITTLE room. 



Last night we met as strangers, 
And I. worn out with dangers, 
My heart and soul beset 
With worn.*, fear and fret. 
Fleeing from noise and sound. 
Found you and sleep profound. 

Little room 

That held me in your arms. 
Sheltered from dread alarms 
Secure throughout the night, 
I humbly crave the right. 
Stirred deep by your endeavor, 
To call you friend forever. 



21 



BEAUTY 



"yUTHY do the idle weep 

That in the wake 
Of beauty there comes grief? 
Often it is relief 
When loveliness is brief. 

It is enough for me 
That beauty is — 
To hunt it to its lair, 
To find it unaware, 
To know it everywhere. 



22 



APRIL, IMMUNE 



TVFEW warmth in ling'ring twilight, 

New hope in stark grey trees 
Whisper the miracle 

Alive in each smug breeze. 

I, too, wait longingly, 

But I shall wait in vain, 
For what my soul is seeking — 

Earth will not know again. 

Somewhere he too is finding, 
Who sleeps in far off France, 

This April so forgetful 
Of bitter circumstance. 



23 



SOUL ALIVE 



Tl/TY days are drab and commonplace, 
But, oh, my dreams, my dreams — 
Days may be dour, but oh, God's grace, 
My dreams, my golden dreams! 

I travel over magic seas 

In fair white sailing ships 
Who never have felt the salty breeze 

Nor been where sea foam drips. 

Never a port is closed to me 

Nor to adventuring: 
Oh, dull and blank my days may be, 

But my soul can sing and sing 

What if I'm tied from eight to five, 

My dreams atone, atone. 
By grace of God my soul's alive 

And comes into its own. 



GOLDEN WEDDING BRIDE 

TDRING me little trophies 

Of the dear dead long ago: 
Sudden smiles and kisses 

Not premeditate and slow — 
Fifty years we're married, 

But, my dear, some souls stay young 
And I'd die where springtime lingers 

With her violets unsung. 

Youthful joy and laughter 

I'd have with us to the end, 
Garlands of the May days 

Shining out around each bend; 
Memories — just a background — 

Not confused with what's ahead; 
Singing lips and merry hearts 

To meet the happy dead 



25 



BLUE HOLLYHOCKS 

TF only when the world was new 

They'd made some hollyhocks in blue, 
My garden plot would be perfection. 
I like the pink ones very much, 
And red ones give a gorgeous touch, 
But oh, for a hollyhock sky-blue 

Can't you just see them on the stalk 
Extra stately, there by the walk, 
With a heavenly trellis of white behind? 
Hollyhocks white and hollyhocks red 
Are wonderful things for a flower bed; 
But a hollyhock blue — oh, heart's desire! 

Hollyhocks red are vivid fire, 
And of hollyhocks yellow I never tire. 
Hollyhocks one and all I love 
But a hollyhock mirroring the blue of the sky- 
It is useless and futile for me to deny — 
Would be of all flowers the one I'd love best. 



26 



BRIMMING CUP 

TWTY Cup of Happiness filled up — 

Filled up to its clean round rim 
With youth and love, oh, wonder cup — 
They bubbled over the brim. 

But I was afraid to drink — afraid 

Of life and poverty. 
I was betrayed by my fears — betrayed, 

And my cup was lost to me. 

Once more my cup is full — once more, 
After the long, long years; 
But wisdom and gold are now its store 
And my drink is salt — for tears. 



27 



APRIL 



A PRIL that lays wet fingers on 

The world with such reward, 
Alladin of a hundred dreams 
That need each one a bard. 

April, Magician of the year, 

Whose touch is life, whose breath 

Has in it wondrous alchemy 
That triumphs over death. 

April, the best beloved of all — 

Fantastic, glorious time 
Of new born life and Robin's call, 

To you once more a rhyme. 



28 



IN TRAFFIC 



VOUR passing — 

Perhaps it was a word 
Or just a glance 

Something deep down you stirred 
Sharply — as with a lance — 
And I see violets of spring. 

Your passing — 

Strange that I cannot tell 

How you have snared my mind 

And cast a magic spell 

My soul has not denned — 

But all the woodlands sing. 

Your passing — 
Like some old melody 
Haunts me through many days 
Clear-cut, — twang of salt sea 
In traffic's dull amaze — 
Keeps me remembering! 



29 



LONGING 

TF only you would come to me tonight — 

When all the world is shining silver bright 
And hold me close against your throbbing heart, 
As if I were, in deed and truth, a part 
Of your existence evermore. 
If only you would come ! 

My soul would be as crimson as my blood, 

For my whole being's swept as with a flood 

By longing for yourself, flesh touching flesh, 

Your hand in mine, your hair's bright shimmering mesh 

Against my cheek. Oh, my dear love, 

If only you would come! 



30 



INTROSPECTION 



HTHE road to yesterday 

Is burdened with a catafalque 
Mysterious and grey. 

I dare not lift the pall 

From off that dark slow-moving train — 

For fear one voice might call. 

Then would I never go 

Toward those dull undesired tomorrows 

That I long not to know. 



31 



CANDLE LIGHT SONGS 

OING me songs of candlelight, 

Sweetheart, for the day's been hard, 

Bring into the early night 
Lyrics of an humble bard. 

Nothing tedious or staid, 

Just some treasured heartfelt tune 

Softly on the twilight laid 

Drifting in with dusk and moon. 

Something you can chant, my dear, 

Gently, like a lullaby, 
Something simple and sincere — 

Songs that help men live and die. 



32 



AFTER DEATH 

"QEATH of itself is not my thought, 

For those adventures that fate has brought 
Make it as natural as life or birth 
Or the turning round of the curious earth. 

But this is the thing that my thoughts ponder 
As I gaze out on the garden yonder — 
What growing things shall spring from my clay 
When it has served me for my little day? 

Once long ago a Persian sighed 
For wine for his dust when his body had died; 
But the thing that would mean the most to me 
Would be for my dust to cherish a tree. 



33 



POETRY 



"*X7ITHIN my heart there glows 

A gay white light — 
Lovely as some bright rose. 

Through struggle storm and sorrow 
This light is mine 
Illumining all tomorrow. 

Life would be naught to me 
Without my light, 
The flame of poetry. 



34 



END OF THE MAY 



T HAVE your love, and yet 

Life is no easy thing, 
For I want no regret 

In Love's adventuring 

It weighs so on my thought — 
This love that brightly flowers- 

That sometimes, overwrought, 
I keep unhappy hours. 

Not that I doubt you — no — 
But that I dread the day 

That tests love's steadiest glow, 
The ending of the May. 



35 



LAMENT 



T? VERY sort of love I knew, 
But now I have forgotten. 
Tender, oh, and very true, 
A scheme whose core is rotten 
That can take from love and laughter — 
Grimly to unknown hereafter — 
You, that were the essence of the May. 

Every sort of love I knew, 

But why should I remember? 

Fate is but an ugly shrew, 

And June is as December. 

I am put to utter rout; 

You that were my light gone out 

Suddenly, before the dawn of day. 



36 



OLD SHIPS 



T WHO had longed for fame 

9 In youth, who saw my name 
Shining in silver light, 
Renown, star bright, 
And gave up all to be 
Mother and wife, am free 
Long since of all regret. 

Those dreams I hearkened to, 
Those ships that sailed the blue, 
Have come at last to harbor: 
All I longed for — 
My son, who brought them in 
Has cancelled might-have-been 
And glorified the sunset. 



37 



RESURRECTION 



Y OUTH lav dead within me, 

And never made a sign. 
Love will bury youth 

When you give it by design. 

Youth was dust and ashes, 

And not a rose tint lay 
Upon the fearful sameness 

Of the grey and usual day. 

And then — without my bidding — 
Came love that laughs like glee. 

Dear God, the resurrection! 
Youth riots now in me! 



38 



PARTING OF THE WAYS 

"fX/E come to parting of the ways 

Whose lives love once bound up together 
For all of time, but now naught stays 
Of that close tie but memory. 

And strangest of sad things, my heart 

Is empty of all feeling now ; 
Complaisant, as we go apart, 

Bankrupt of all emotions' wealth. 

And yet my mind knows this always, 
Though love is dead and at an end, 

That which was you — oh, strange amaze — 
Is mine unchanged for all of time. 

What each of us will be, remains 

Our own — but those dead years are fixed: 

In what we build the soul retains 
The you and me of yesterdays. 



39 



SINCERITY 

T CAN bear your moods — 

But — never come to me 
When that thing intrudes 
That is mockery. 

All the love you want 
For your love I'll give, 

But you must not flaunt 
Love that's like a sieve. 

While you are my lover 

All your heart I'll claim, 
Nothing under cover — 

Nor what's just a name— 

I'll bear anything, 
Anything, my dear, 

While to me you bring 
Love that is sincere. 



40 



CANDOR 



A LITTLE wind swept, 
** And a little late 
Women are asking 
Candor of fate. 

The old and accepted 
Defeated— are gone— 

And women, standing 
In a new dawn, 

Are taking new duty, 
Seeking new power, 

Scorning traditions 
Of the old hour. 

In the loud clamour 
Come wonder with me. 

Are women happier 
Now, being "free"? 



41 



THE REJECTED 

CORROW came sighing in the night, 

And hastily I shut my window, 
Afraid with a sudden, nameless fright, 

That would not know, that would not know. 

Sorrow passed by, and all my days 

Move as a placid sunlit sea. 
Yet in my heart a stranger stays — 

There is a curious vacancy. 

Wide is my casement now, inviting, 
For my heart sickens with its joy, 

And all my soul is withering, 

And life that's like a child's gay toy. 

Somehow I know it is too late, 

I cannot lure adventure back. 
I, who have shunned one gift of fate, 

Shall lack and lack — and always lack. 



42 



DEAR GHOSTS 



^HIS, then, I write for you 

After the years, the tears, the fears, 
As I see now what's true, 
As calm discretion nears, 
The things that tried me most, 
The bitter pain, the strain, the rain, 
Those things like some dear ghost 
Stayed on, when I would fain 
Have lost them out of life — 
And now their blight and night and fright, 
Their hurt and harm and strife, 
These make the final light, 
The glory of my days. 



43 



THE SPIRIT 



Y ou must not dull tne Spirit, 
Nor dim its high white light, 
For it is the shining presence 
Dividing the day from the night. 

You must not break the Spirit, 
For as long as it rides high, 

Nothing in all this world 
Its power can defy. 

You must not kill the Spirit, 
For a man whose soul is dead 

Is lost to high achievement, 
And his final prayer is said. 



44 



FIGHTING COURAGE 

/7* RANT me a courage, Lord, 

That visions victory 
Upon the darkest day 
When fears would vanquish me. 

Grant me a courage, Lord, 
That in the dreariest hour 
Can see, beyond, the light 
Of Conquest's shining tower, 

Grant me a courage, Lord, 
That strengthens with the sorrows, 
That moves assured to meet 
The grimmest of tomorrows. 



45 



GREENWICH VILLAGE 

XJE moved into Bohemia, 

Bohemia, Bohemia, 
A-looking for extremia 
And rare and curious dreamia, 
And what he found was — Dirt. 

Old windows that throughout the night 
Glowed like old moons with mellow light, 
Old crumbling steps that had allure, 
Their faults by candlelight secure, 
All these the day revealed 

And even in Bohemia, 

Bohemia, Bohemia, 

That land of bold extremia, 

Men were the same, though seamier, 

Amid the grime and — Dirt. 



4 6 



THE USUAL STARS 



r\H storm-wracked soul, look up 

To where the usual stars 
Serenely deck the cup 
Of darkened sky. 

The usual stars! Life moves 
On through accustomed grooves, 
In spite of human pain, 
In spite of sorrow. 

Take comfort then, let grief, 
After its due, be brief, 
Remembering sorrow is 
But part of life. 



47 



HILL, BELOVED 



/~\NCE more the sun is shining there — 

Upon my hill, that I have loved 
So long, and bracing autumn air 

Bids me climb up, who long to climb, 

I think I have no greater pain 
In growing old than this regret — 

Of knowing I shall not again 

With eager feet mount to the top. 

Trees of my hill shall bloom and fruit, 
The flowers sway to bees and rain, 

And winds shall make a golden lute 
Of leaves and grasses growing high — 

And I shall not be there to know — 
Nor here, after a time, to dream — 

But this is true, wherever I go, 
There will go with me — this hill beloved. 



48 



OH THAT I MAY HAVE LOVE 

(~)H, that I may have Love — 

Love for the flowers and bees, 
Love for the birds and trees, 
For stars and shining seas. 
Oh, that I May Have Love! 

Oh, that I may have love. 
Love of all life about. 
I want no cynic's doubt, 
When my frail soul goes out. 
Oh, that I may have love! 



49 



CHOICE 

T CARE not if my days be short, 

If I may live them to the full. 
But in the bright gay-hued retort 
I want no commplace or dull. 

Life is not in a length of days, 

But in a bold adventurous plan 
I hold, the Swift has great amaze — 

Oft knows the best of what he ran, 

Gaining or losing, who shall say? 

For the standards here — are they worth while? 
Oh, I will take the shorter day, 

That is brimming full, with a cheer and a smile. 



50 



CHILDLESS WOMEN 

IN childless women's eyes 
A misery of lacking lies. 
Under their gaiety is woe 
And this, one feels, they do not know: 

The glad joy of the blue bird winging — 
The freshness of the morning singing — 
The depths of roses brightly glowing — 
The soul of things they should be knowing. 

In childless women's eyes 
There shines no glimpse of paradise — 
Their loss, who miss the high white cross 
Of motherhood, eternal loss. 



51 



INDIAN SUMMER 



"PJAYS of Indian Summer, 

Hazy, Lazy days, 
Stirring all my soul 

To wonder and amaze. 
Days made just for dreaming 
By the gold corn's gleaming, 
Days of mystery — 
All you hold for me! 

Memories sweet and tender, 

Twilights lost and gone 
Sacred to old years 

That have now sped on. 
Oh, that just by dreaming 
By the gold corn's gleaming, 
I could bring once more 
All my treasure store. 



52 



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